My new laptop came with the ND-6450A, burns 8x +/- but won't do DL with the stock firmware (v 2.26).

Can't find much info on the 6450 except a few ebay auctions that state the ND-6450A can do DL burn and that it is similar/identical to the ND-6500 (how trustworthy is an ebay ad, tho?).

BUT the 6540 is not supported by Binflash, I get, "No supported devices found" using -scan.

Surely this drive is upgradable? How could I flash 6500 firmware to the drive, and would I turn it into a brick in the process?

Thanks in advance for any help--

emperor -> RE: Upgrading the ND-6450A (1/21/2005 8:38:14 AM)

denied i would uggest to email Binflash author so he can support the 6450 drive too, when this happens, backup your firmware, send it to us and maybe you can upgrade your drive to 6500

emperor -> RE: Upgrading the ND-6450A (1/21/2005 9:22:34 AM)

you have email, please test it and report back

denied -> RE: Upgrading the ND-6450A (1/21/2005 10:42:54 PM)

Now that's service!

Replied with stock firmware; hope it helps!

emperor -> RE: Upgrading the ND-6450A (1/22/2005 2:33:14 PM)

>Now that's service!

[;)][:)]

Thanks for the file, will added soon at our archive

neildiamond -> RE: Upgrading the ND-6450A (2/2/2005 11:30:34 AM)

Has there been any news on this? I was sent a 6450A Drive that was supposed to have DL support, but Nero isn't showing it as such. Now HP backed down on its promise to upgrade my drive to dual layer (because my first drive died within a month).

I've heard that this might actually be a Dual Layer drive in sheep's clothing, though I'm afraid to flash it with the 6500A BIOS as it is better to have a working drive than no drive at all. Beggars can't be choosers I guess, though I'd love an update.

[:o]

emperor -> RE: Upgrading the ND-6450A (2/2/2005 6:00:42 PM)

6450 should support DL, how about upgrade to the latest Nero version ?

neildiamond -> RE: Upgrading the ND-6450A (2/3/2005 5:30:42 PM)

I tried Nero 6.6.0.3 and 6.6.0.6 with the same result. The firmware is version 2.36. I guess the only thing left is to try flashing it with the 6500 firmware. I just wish there was word of this working from someone else. [8|]

BTW Thanks for your help Bradd Pitt. I guess you have more time to help people with their drive issues now that you have Aniston off your hands. I'd gladly take your leftovers. [;)]

1sg -> RE: Upgrading the ND-6450A (2/3/2005 9:59:27 PM)

I just got a Compaq Laptop it has a NEC ND-6450A and the firmware version is 2.36.

I found out by accident that it was DVD +-R RW burner.

Now am I right in understanding that it is also a Dual Layer burner?

neildiamond -> RE: Upgrading the ND-6450A (2/3/2005 11:52:50 PM)

I haven't seen anything 100% certain on this one. I guy on ebay tells me that his 6450A Drive is already DL w/out any firmware update. He is trying to sell something, of course, but his 6450A drive came from IBM, so it may have different firmware to begin with. Also, the NEC 6500 and NEC 6450 seem to be the same drive based on speculation on the web. However, I have yet to find someone say, "I flashed my 6450 with the 6500 firmware and now it is dual layer." Though it seems like it should work. Hey, why would NEC bother manufacturing two different drives at the same time, when firmware is the cheap way to make one better than the other? Olympus does this with their cameras and (different versions of the EOS are apparently mostly the same except for the price). So it makes sense from a marketing perspective. [8D]

Want to be the guinea pig? I'd be more inclined to try it myself, but I just got upgraded from a CDR to a DVD+-R on my HP laptop, because the drive failed after just 4 weeks of use. I don't think they'd buy, "Oh it died again! How about that." Also, since DL media is so pricey right now, I'm less inclined to take the gamble since I'm not going to pay $5 a pop for it.

If I had the DVD burner from day 1 though, I'd flash it in a second. So do you want to step up to the plate? We need somebody to see if this actually works. [:D]

It does stand to reason that it is the same drive marketed under different model/marketing numbers as has been suggested so I assume that NEC 6100=6450=6500.

One of the things I've seen here to look out for is that on laptop drives the firmware controls master/slave setting. Some laptops default to slave and others master. That could make it quite difficult to fix if it changed the master/slave setting on you. (You can always hook it up to a desktop with a converter cable though to reflash.)

Be sure to read up on the process of flashing the 6100 or 6500 and what firmware does what. Perhaps order the desktop-latop converter cable to be safe.

First, my laptop has a NEC dvd writer , model # ND-6450A. I have heard that it can burn on Dual-Layer, but after looking in Infotool and in DVD Identifier, I can say that it doesn't burn on DL but it READS DL.

With this in mind, I wanted that my writer could burn on DL too, so I have flashed my laptop dvd writer with the help of binflash - NEC GUI version - (C) by Herrie, Liggy and r-man adn with the original (stock) firmware for the ND-6500A.

After restarting, Windows Xp , Nero and Nero Infotool recognize my dvd writer as a _NEC ND-6500A and reports that it can burn DL (See the attached Nero Infotool screenshots).

Conclusion: You can safely flash the ND-6500 firmware over the ND-6450 drive.